Solex Project Carnarvon’s Post

https://lnkd.in/gzueGFYV Good to see people reading the IPEN report and understanding how it requires a change in Governance to correct the severely degraded aquatic ecosystems. Hopefully the council can make more positive enlightened decisions into the future, that see beyond short term economics, where the environmental impacts are externalised.

The Government's (legally binding) target to halt the decline of wildlife needs action on the ground from businesses and decision makers. But how do we make sure the chain of responsibility makes it to them from the Secretary of State? A new report published today by WWF-UK makes the case for Government to develop “nature-positive pathways”, setting out how different economic sectors should contribute to halting and reversing nature’s decline by 2030. It argues that Government should decide how much each sector must contribute to solving the key causes of nature-loss, based on how much that sector contributes to the problem, the cost and opportunities of change, and the impacts on people and businesses. Overall, the effort allocated to each sector should add up to meeting the targets. From there, the Government should work with businesses to set out the big policy levers needed for change in each sector, giving certainty for investment as well as clear accountability. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eykUEMU3

Some A$13 billion in taxpayer dollars and 30 years of policy reform have failed to arrest the devastating decline in the health of Australia’s most important river system, the Murray-Darling Basin, new research shows. The four-year study released today involved 12 scientists from Australia’s leading universities, and draws on data from 1980 to 2023. It is the most comprehensive report card to date on government policies to protect the Murray-Darling. We found expensive and contentious reforms, including the once-vaunted Murray-Darling Basin Plan, have mostly failed to improve outcomes for people and nature along the river system. The result is deeply alarming for a natural asset so fundamental to Australia’s environmental, cultural and economic wellbeing. Here, we outline our findings, and present a plan to turn this situation around.

The attached Guardian article link provides a very useful summary by Guy Shrubsole on the UK Conservative Government’s record on biodiversity matters. His book ‘Who Owns England?: How We Lost Our Land and How to Take It Back’ is definitely worth a read too. https://lnkd.in/d7XApHmG #BiodiversityPolicy #ConservativeGovernment

We've got a 10-million-dollar question: what are the environmental benefits and outcomes of our Conservation Reserve Program? If you, your business or your organization could conduct the research to help us find out, keep reading. We're seeking proposals for projects that will survey, sample, and measure ecosystem benefits, citizen science, and, in general, evaluate the overall impacts of CRP, one of the world’s largest voluntary conservation programs. Proposed projects should be for a one- to five-year term and a minimum cost of $500,000 but no more than $5 million. The deadline to submit is June 7, 2024. Get more info and apply on grants.gov: https://lnkd.in/gpKWRR4u #conservation #fundingopportunity #grant #research #agriculture

Today, April 11th, there is a lot of anger, understandably so : our EU democratic institutions failed us. 🔇 The European Parliament silenced democratic debate by rushing through an urgent procedure for CAP reform. 🔇 What warranted such urgency? Especially when it meant sacrificing vital practices that could have given us hope. I could imagine we trigger that procedure in the context of Biodiversity loss. But we used it to serve BigCap and Demagoguery*. In this context, the burden of hope will be on farmers, private organizations... on the citizens that will make the informed choices, but no matter how driven they are, this will become marginal without institutional support. I am happy to spend whatever time is necessary to everyone interested to explain what the EUParliament just did and why opposing ecology and agriculture is dangerous. Faustine Bas-Defossez, Thank you for you fight, thank you for your outrage. I hope many listen to you and many more. Yesterday, I was speaking of Adaptation vs. Regeneration. Reverting back on renegeration is irresponsible. In the face of hardship, you persevere to see this through. You don't drive this ship to the coral reefs because it is too windy ahead. *** We have destroyed a vast majority of ecosystems, disrupted fresh water cycles, depleted soils and we have lost a vast majority of our biodiversity. The underlying value of our society has been destroyed, let's not think that what we are about to face will ever be easy. We can't eat iPhones or dollars. We never said it would be easy. It is the only way forward (and it will be worth it 😊 ) Where are our Captains? On June 9th, let's vote. **** #EUParliament #Democracy #UrsulaVonDerLeyen

At Mars, we are pleased to see that the EU co-legislators last night rejected attempts to weaken the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and agreed to a one-year delay only. This decision finally provides the legal certainty that businesses have been seeking. Mars has been a long-time supporter of the #EUDR as a key tool to drive sustainability and transparency in supply chains. We are glad that the substantial efforts and progress already made by all actors along the value chain to comply with the law is not lost. With this clarity, we will continue to prepare ourselves, working with our suppliers and our partner countries to better align our supply chains with the new regulation. #DeforestationRegulation #Mars #ResponsibleSourcing 

100 Days to follow the Science ⚡️ 📝 Please email your MP today—it takes seconds—and urge them to prioritise the #CANBill in the Private Members’ Ballot. 🌍 Now is the time to enact the joined-up, science-led legislation we need. 👉 https://lnkd.in/eikd-ayB #ClimateAction #NatureUK #UKGovernment Zero Hour

Kudos to Ken Henry, ABS & DCCEEW for pioneering the development of Australia’s National Ecosystem Accounts - critical baseline data to help us map the health and wealth of our nation's natural capital. Valuing the economic contribution of ecosystems will help us calibrate nature with our economy and society. #Changeforthebetter, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, COMMONWEALTH SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ORGANISATION

This podcast gave me the chance to explain why so called SMART objectives are not actually very smart when it comes to designing environment policy. SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) is one of those crass management acronyms that has become revered by the Treasury in the UK. We humans are primates and we like counting things but there are reasons why adopting the "SMART" approach doesn't do justice to the complexity of the ecosystem. If you focus only on what is "measurable", there is a danger you measure what is easy to measure rather than what actually counts. Hedgehogs are hard to measure because they are furtive creatures, but they do still count. The ecosystem is made of multiple complex interactions that we humans can't fully understand. It is like a mosaic picture. Focus too closely on one specific piece and it doesn't make sense but if you stand back and observe, then the patterns and beauty of the picture comes into view. That is why it is not always sensible to focus just on "specifics." It can be hard to predict when nature will recover if we do the right things and create the right habitat. Nature does not recognise the need to comply with Treasury KPIs or to turn up within the right Spending Review period. Nature does not play to our rules. It does not perform to hit the targets assessed by the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) and it doesn't respond to criticism from the National Audit Office. A couple of hard winters can affect the recovery of invertebrates like butterflies. Nightingales and turtle doves might not arrive when we hope but could a few years later. We know that if we do the right sorts of things, nature returns after about 12-20 years, and the effect is faster when it comes to soil biodiversity but it is hard to predict and making objectives "Time-bound" is profoundly unhelpful. Patience is required. In fairness to the creators of the SMART acronym, I don't have problem with objectives being "achievable" and "relevant" - just the rest of it. For those with an hour to spare, the podcast explores in depth the wiring behind the decisions we took on agriculture and environment policy including beaver releases, biodiversity net gain and the Sustainable Farming Incentive. https://lnkd.in/e9zrNGYW